In A bid to bridge the gap between private and government-aided schools, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has decided to give its students the chance to aim for more ambitious career options by equipping them to take entrance exams like the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), the Pre Medical Test (PMT) and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

Starting this academic year, the NDMC has decided to take a step beyond basic education and provide its students the best coaching free of cost and help them aspire for a seat in the top medical and engineering institutions of the country. The municipal body has already come up with its request for proposals, expecting interest from top coaching study circles in the city like FIITJEE, Aakash, Sahil, Sri Chaitanya and the others.

"The scheme is called `Lakshya'. While the NDMC would provide all infrastructure, we want the partner institute to get the problem-solving and analytical expertise, which our schools lack at the moment," NDMC Secretary Santosh Vaidya told Newsline.

The NDMC, which has seen only two students in the last 10 years going on to study in higher institutions, also plans to incentivise the partner institutions appropriately.

Source: The Indian Express By Geeta Gupta NDMC's Lakshya: Free entrance coaching for its students

The six centres launched are located in Lajpat Nagar, Pitampura, Preet Vihar, Janakpuri, Gurgaon and Faridabad. These employable skills to graduates and undergraduates will help enhance the skills of employed accounting professionals. For undergraduates there is a foundation course along with a one year course.

"Our purpose is not to earn profits at the moment, we will look at the revenue aspect later in future. Right now we are focusing on how to provide skilled and practical knowledge to the younger generation," emphasises Lalit Kumar, MD, GAAP Education Ltd. He added that the institute has a tie-up with many Indo-Asian retail companies like Lifestyle, Max, Cantabil, Kazo, Timecity, Siscom and many more.

Other centres will be launched soon in cities like Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. And every city will have not more than 10 centres which will have small batches comprising 25 students each. In all, GAAP will launch 60 centres throughout the country with the investment cost up to Rs 15 crore to 18 crore. The institute also promises to wave off the tuition fees for students scoring above 75 per cent in their last examination. The fees for the courses which are for duration of one year is around Rs 35,000 and can also be paid in installments and the revenue is estimated to be somewhere around Rs 35-40 crores for 60 centres.

The institute will also offer free education to two girl students at every centre in each city based on the economic background. "Keeping in mind that a family prefers to send the boy for further education, we will make sure that free education is provided to at least two girl students on the basis of merit," said Grewal.

According to NDMC, the percentage to decide a student's eligibility is yet to be fixed though it may go up to 80%. The scheme Lakshya will be launched this July and will prepare students for entrance exams to various professional courses. The civic body may also start intensive professional coaching for sports.

Said New Delhi Municipal Council officials: ``We want to give a definite career path to students passing out of NDMC schools. For this, we will start with project Lakshya under which students who excel in studies in class X will be taught by the best teachers in a separate school. Besides, as per their professional interest, these students will be provided coaching by private institutes through tie-ups.''

New Delhi Municipal Council has already informed its stakeholders about the project and its school at Mandir Marg will be used for this purpose.

Said Mamta R Agarwal, director, education, New Delhi Municipal Council : ``We will tie up with private institutes for providing coaching for medical, non-medical, commerce and humanity fields. The teachers who have ensured good academic results will be shortlisted to teach these students. Main coaching will be given in class XII only.''

Source: Times Of India By Ruhi Bhasin NDMC sets a `lakshya': Coach bright students

The entrance examinations are to be held in the month of June 2010 and the application form for free coaching can be obtained from the office of the centre for coaching and career planning, JMI, located in the Old SRK hostel building.

Amarjit Chopra, president of ICAI said that, "This initiative, for students who work for 14 hours a day towards completing their article-ship along with studies, will immensely help them to reduce stress while they juggle between tuition centres and workplace where they do their articleship."

Overhauling the examination system is also on the radar of ICAI, as it mulls to modify the academic pattern by basing it on the application model.

"The ICAI may introduce case studies in examination in order to test the aptitude and analytical prowess of students which will help them to build up their own understanding of the subject," added Chopra.

Under the aegis of the Board of Studies, the ICAI, on the physical front will put in place regular classroom teaching at all important places.

"Covering each and every aspect of the course, these classes are expected to provide students with complete guidance. Moreover, such an initiative will enhance the personal interaction between teachers and students where they will benefit from the face-to-face discussions," said an official from the ICAI.

The study material will be accordingly revised while keying on the applicability skills.

Application based questions in the Common Proficiency Test (CPT), Professional Competence Course (PCC) and Integrated Professional competence Course (IPCC) will be introduced in order to enhance the critical skills of students.

"The provision to provide coaching classes to students may take two years to evolve into a concrete shape. Moreover, we are also planning to undertake research projects particularly in the field where the Institute can come up with suggestions towards optimum utilization of scarce resources of economy for industry and government agencies," said an official of ICAI.

The ICAI is also lined up with another initiative which will ensure that the grievance redressal system e-samadhan becomes more responsive and effective.

One of the finest and most sort after names in IITJEE coaching is Vidya Mandir Classes, Delhi who through their pedagogy, content and processes have maintained admission success rate of 60% or more for the last two decades. The catch is that while over 50,000 students all over the country are interested to join Vidya Mandir Coaching, Vidya Mandir has been so far offering only 500-odd coaching seats.

Finally Vidya Mandir Classes have decided to offer more coaching seats by forging an exclusive learning partnership with "IIT Study Circle", a division of New Horizons India Ltd. Mr Shyam Mohan Gupta, director, Vidya Mandir Classes stated that, "We have realised over these last few years that there has been a distinct escalation in the number of students seeking our support in preparing for IIT entrance exams and we have been mulling over providing our expertise more extensively across the country. IITSC with its quality credentials and footprint across the country offered us that platform which we can leverage to achieve this."

Source: Times Of India New Horizons in IIT-JEE Coaching

The helpline (011-65978181) that targets distressed students preparing for board exams is manned by 15 trained volunteer counsellors.

"The helpline will be available till March 2 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.," said Abdul Mabood, Director, Snehi. "In 2008, we attended to 1,040 calls related to exams stress. Out of these 922 (88.65 per cent) callers were students who were psychologically distressed," said Mabood.

The helpline, which has been running from 1999, also received calls from parents and relatives of students.

"Out of the 922 students, who were helped through telephonic and face to face counselling, 835 (90.56 per cent) were preparing for Class X and XII board exams. The rest were students from junior classes," revealed Mabood.

An analysis of the calls has revealed that 242 (26.24 per cent) students were having severe psychological problems.

"At least nine students talked about committing suicide. So it is very important for parents to talk to their children and make sure that their stress levels are low," said Mabood.

Disclosing this here yesterday, Tikshan Sud, medical education and research minister, said the decision was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal keeping in view the poor financial conditions of SC students. He said it was noticed that some genuine SC students did not get admission due to their failure to pay upfront fee to the institutions. He said according to the earlier system, the student was required to pay fee and other charges upfront and later seek reimbursement from the government.

Now the institutes after admitting eligible students would seek reimbursement of fee and scholarship from the Punjab government after completing the process of admission.

Secretary, Medical Education and Research, Jagjit Puri explained that instructions had been issued to registrar, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, director, Medical Education and Research, director, Ayush, and principals of all medical, ayurvedic, homeopathy, dental and nursing colleges in the state to make this decision part of prospectus of their institutes and also bring this decision to the notice of every SC students at the time of counselling.

The total fee for the twoyear programme at FIIT JEE in 2008 was Rs 94,282. Pramod Panwar, a student at FIIT JEE, had paid Rs 77,446 in one go towards this amount. After attending the course for five-anda-half months, Panwar dropped out, finding the quality of teaching unsatisfactory. When he asked for a refund of the balance amount, however, the coaching centre said that the fee is not refundable.

``...By charging consideration for the period for which it is yet to provide the service, the institute forces the student to continue with the course despite there being unsatisfactory service ... in the quality of teaching, thereby jeopardising the career prospects of the students.'' said Justice J D Kapoor in a recent order.

Twenty year old Devender Singh had applied for an eight-month course at the Indian Institute of Hardware Technology, based in Yamuna Vihar in September, 2005, after he read about their
"100 per cent placement guarantee".

Because of his family's financial condition, he had to work part time to shell out the fee amount. Over two years have passed since then but even half the course has not yet been completed, Singh said. Singh, along with three other students of the same course, have complained to the East District Consumer forum, demanding fee refund and a compensation of Rs 1 lakh from the institute.